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Papua New Guinean Wins International World Of Children Award

Submitted by PIR Editor on Tue, 10/11/2016 - 14:40

Founder of Simbu Children Foundation recognized for his child advocacy work

By Pauline Sapake

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, Oct. 12, 2016) – In a historic win for the Pacific and PNG on many fronts, a Papua New Guinean has won the World of Children Award, chosen from nominations from over 100 countries. Jimmy Drekore, founder and president of Simbu Children Foundation, has won the award from the World of Children Incorporated and will travel to New York on October 27 to receive the award.

Sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize for Child Advocacy”, the World of Children Award recognises change makers nominated for education, health, humanitarian and youth awards and provides cash grants to support development of their programs serving children.

The win guarantees the foundation a grant of US$50,000 (K162,330) over three years.

SCF is a charity that funds airfares, public transport and medical costs for sick village children and their parents from Chimbu to travel into cities and overseas hospitals for medical purposes which are unavailable locally.

Mr Drekore’s story started 12 years ago when he met an abandoned 10-year-old girl at the hospital, who was treated for injuries sustained in a car accident and had been living in hospital entirely alone for seven years. He met other children in the same situation who had no one to care for or advocate for their medical needs and he was determined to help them.

He then called upon his Chimbu community for help and founded SFC in 2005 with a network of volunteer fundraisers from PNG and Australia providing much needed help to families.

WCA is supported by over 100 top firms in the fashion, retail, finance, and insurance industries worldwide. They receive thousands of nominations from over 100 countries annually and use a uniquely rigorous vetting process to select honorees, including an on-site investigation and independent audit of each finalist. SCF was audited by Richard Coz, director and investigator with New Zealand Compliance Security Investigation who travelled to Simbu to conduct the audit.

SFC has provided financial support and facility repairs to a local hospital, a power project for a local orphanage, travel expenses for many children to receive heart surgery in Port Moresby, and even funded research that successfully developed a new treatment for a painful bone disease suffered by many PNG children.

Comments

A very powerful yet heart-warming story. Congratulations to Jimmy for standing up for his community. Most times people see problems but do not think about solutions. Instead, a lot of blaming and shaming of the government with its officials arises and no progress is made. Yes our government is formed for the people and by the people but, what can you as an individual do to impact your community? If there is delay in providing services, let us do our best to help ourselves and the others around us and change our country for the better.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.